Running on battery power alone isn’t enough.

After updating to the latest Windows 10 Spring 2018 Update, my laptop’s battery suddenly stopped charging. This issue was neither the fault of the update’s best new features nor its hidden gems. My laptop would indicate that it was plugged in, but at the same time it would also tell me that it’s not charging.

Thankfully, I discovered that this problem was not rare and would often arise after a Windows update. And a lot more thankful, there was an easy way to fix the problem. This is how I made my laptop battery to start charging when it’s plugged in.

PC plugged in but not charging

Plugged in, not charging

If your laptop battery is refusing to charge even though it is acknowledging the fact that it is plugged in here are a few things you need to do:

Open the Device Manager by right-clicking the Start button or searching for it and selecting Device Manager.

Click Batteries on the list in order to expand it and you should see two items: Microsoft AC Adapter and Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery.

Right-click on each of the item and choose Uninstall device. Yes, you are uninstalling your laptop’s battery drivers, but do not worry because they will be reinstalled automatically when you restart your laptop.

Shut down your laptop.

Unplug the power cable from your laptop.

If your laptop has a removable battery, remove it. My laptop does not have a removable battery. I tried skipping this step but it didn’t work, so I removed the bottom panel of my laptop and then removed the battery by disconnecting it from the motherboard.

Put the battery back in if you removed it.

Plug in your laptop.

Power on your laptop.

Click the battery icon in the system tray and you should see that your laptop is plugged in and charging

By reinstalling my laptop’s battery drivers and disconnecting and then reconnecting its battery, I got my laptop’s battery back to charging when it’s plugged in. With differences in manufacturers, your mileage may vary. If you came across this problem of plugged-in-not-charging and found a fix that is different from mine, please describe your method in the comments below.